A kobold walked with a swaying gait at the head of a group of about ten of its kin, all methodically heading toward Veritas in the fading afternoon light.
The terrifying howl that had echoed earlier from the city had given them the long-awaited signal to begin the operation.
That's strange.
The initial plan called for a night attack. Weakened defenses, sleeping civilians, maximum confusion.
Why did the Boss move up the timing without telling anyone?
The kobold's head resembled that of a wild coyote, with an elongated and tapered muzzle, a constantly wet black nose that twitched nonstop to catch surrounding scents, and two triangular ears perched atop its skull that swiveled independently at the slightest suspicious sound.
Its fur was a mix of dusty brown and gray tones that allowed it to blend effectively into natural environments.
Its body was slender but surprisingly muscular, with arms slightly longer in proportion than those of an average human, giving it a disturbing simian appearance.
Its hands ended in dark, curved claws that gleamed faintly in the light.
A long, bushy tail dragged behind it, sweeping the dust from the path, occasionally twitching with nervous, jerky movements that betrayed its growing agitation as they neared the city.
It was armed with an upward-curved sword it had taken from an adventurer it had devoured several days earlier.
When thinking about their leader Dariston, it felt a burning, bitter jealousy that twisted its stomach.
A mere human gained monstrous physical power and absolute authority over all of us simply by voluntarily submitting to Skadis.
Skadis, our creator, we kobolds.
Our origin.
Our goddess.
It shivered involuntarily as it vividly recalled Dariston's gaze during their last strategy meeting.
I consider myself relatively strong and intimidating among kobolds.
But Dariston is on a completely different level.
He makes everyone look like prey.
His hungry predator stare.
His fixed, permanent smile full of terrifying teeth.
That dangerous lunatic scares the entire pack.
No one even willingly gets too close to him out of sheer survival instinct.
The kobold was deeply jealous of Dariston's power and privileged status, but it didn't even have the courage to openly challenge him or voice its opinion.
At least since Dariston's arrival in our region, we've eaten really well.
Better than ever before.
It licked its chops at the memory.
Thanks to him and his effective tactics, we've all become significantly stronger by regularly eating fresh human flesh.
He managed the feat of uniting all the isolated kobold groups in the region into a single organized force.
Thanks to that unification, we've been able to methodically devour entire villages and even several small towns.
It grimaced slightly remembering the difficult beginnings.
At the start of our coordinated raids, many of us fell.
But that gradually decreased as we learned.
The survivors, myself included, became exponentially stronger and more experienced thanks to all that food and constant combat.
Literally a golden age for us.
An all-you-can-eat buffet that never seems to end.
It sighed with a hint of regret.
It's just really too bad that our leader is a transformed human rather than a true born kobold.
It hurts the pride.
The kobold finally lifted its eyes from the dusty ground it had been staring at while walking.
It saw Hiro, Lena, and Lucia standing a few dozen meters ahead.
Lena was just pulling her bloodied sword from the body of a dead kobold lying at their feet.
The three adventurers turned simultaneously toward the approaching group of kobolds.
The lead kobold stared carefully at the corpse of its kin.
It was surely some incompetent idiot who didn't know how to fight properly.
It turned to those walking behind it with a wide grin.
"There's good food ahead of us!"
---
Constantine rushed out of the guild building upon hearing unusual noise and growing commotion coming from the surrounding streets.
What's happening out there?
He made several powerful athletic leaps up to the flat roof of the guild to get an overview of the situation across the entire city.
What he saw froze him for a second.
The city is under attack.
From all sides simultaneously.
Looking more closely at the assailants running through the streets slaughtering civilians, he immediately recognized their distinctive silhouettes.
Kobolds.
Constantine didn't waste a single extra second analyzing the situation.
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He immediately broke into a full sprint, agilely leaping from rooftop to rooftop while simultaneously drawing his black sword, which gleamed under the fading sunlight.
By deliberately sliding his free hand along the dark blade, the entire sword instantly crackled with bluish electric energy that coursed over its entire surface.
He landed spectacularly in the middle of a critical situation where several city guards were desperately doing their best to fight off a pack of kobolds that had surrounded them.
The moment Constantine touched the ground, three starving kobolds lunged at him with claws extended.
He attacked in one fluid motion.
Each strike of his electrified sword released a violent discharge that pierced and paralyzed several nearby kobolds simultaneously.
CRACKLE.
He firmly grabbed one kobold by the neck with his free hand, brutally yanked it toward him despite its desperate flailing, then cleanly ran it through at point-blank range.
Blood spurted abundantly.
He withdrew the blade with a sharp, efficient pull, then used the still-warm body as a projectile to violently knock back two other charging attackers.
One particularly reckless kobold charged straight at him with a rusted lance aimed at his chest.
Constantine easily blocked the lance by skillfully sliding his blade along the wooden shaft.
Then he cleanly severed the hand holding the weapon.
The kobold screamed in sharp pain while staring at its bleeding stump.
Constantine's blade immediately rose in a short, precise upward strike under the jaw that completely pierced the throat.
The kobold collapsed in gurgles.
The surviving kobolds desperately tried to encircle him.
A massive sphere of lightning exploded violently around Constantin in all directions.
BOOM.
Brutally repelling all the kobolds within several meters and fatally electrocuting those that were too close.
Constantine took advantage of the created chaos to wreak absolute carnage.
After finishing off every kobold in the area, the surviving guards thanked him with voices trembling from adrenaline and relief.
Constantine gave a brief nod without lingering.
He took off running again toward another area crying for help.
An adventurer he vaguely recognized quickly approached him, running alongside.
"Constantine, do you know exactly what's going on? Why is the city under attack?"
Constantine shook his head while leaping over a corpse.
"I'm just as lost as you are."
The adventurer looked around worriedly.
"Where's Charlotte? You two are normally always together to fight this kind of threat."
Constantine immediately thought of Charlotte.
Shit.
His voice became strangely small and hesitant.
"She isn't... operational at the moment."
The adventurer frowned in confusion.
"Operational? What exactly do you mean by that?"
Constantine swallowed hard.
"Charlotte is temporarily out of service."
"Out of service?"
The adventurer stopped running.
"Explain yourself better, Constantine. What happened to her that she's out of service during a massive attack on the city?"
Very precise images appeared involuntarily in Constantine's mind.
A completely broken bed with the wooden frame fractured in several places.
Charlotte reduced to an abandoned, completely inert body, stranded amid the wreckage of what had once been a comfortable bed.
As if her mind had literally deserted her physical shell.
Her face buried deeply in the dented and deformed mattress.
Her arms limp along her body as if someone had simply dropped them there lifeless.
Her legs spread in a position suggesting she could no longer move them.
Her breathing weak and irregular.
Constantine violently shook his head to dispel the images.
"Charlotte needs extended rest."
He almost said Cassian's name instead of Charlotte but caught himself just in time.
"Unfortunately she won't be able to help right now."
The adventurer looked genuinely concerned.
"It must be a really serious injury or illness because Charlotte is always bursting with energy and ready to fight."
He immediately turned toward the guild.
"I'm going to go check on Charlotte's condition to see if she needs medical help."
The adventurer ran off toward the guild building without waiting for a reply.
Constantine panicked.
No no no he absolutely cannot go there!
He'll see her in that state!
He'll figure out what happened!
He followed very closely, desperately trying to think of an acceptable solution.
What do I do?
How do I stop him without raising even more suspicion?
Finally, after several seconds of terrible hesitation, Constantin suddenly accelerated.
He caught up to the adventurer.
And knocked him out with a precise blow to the back of the head.
The man collapsed unconscious.
Constantine quickly hoisted him over his shoulder, rushed into the first empty house he found, and unceremoniously stuffed the inert body into a large wardrobe that he carefully locked.
He exited the house while frantically checking that no one had noticed during this suspicious operation.
No one.
Perfect.
He reassured himself out loud in a whisper.
"I really had no other choice, he would have discovered everything."
He involuntarily thought back to Charlotte and the state he had left her in.
Maybe I went a little too far.
---
Dariston firmly held one of Cassian's thighs in one massive clawed hand, and one of her arms in the other equally powerful hand.
He slowly brought her closer to his wide-open gaping maw that revealed endless rows of razor-sharp fangs.
Cassian struggled violently, trying to break free from the deadly grip.
Her feet kicked at empty air.
A kobold cautiously approached Dariston, clearing its throat to get his attention.
"Boss, the resistance in this city is significantly stronger than what we initially estimated in our reconnaissance reports."
It paused nervously.
"We've taken really serious losses since the start of the operation, way more than anticipated."
Dariston slowly turned toward it with his glowing red eyes.
"Pass this exact message to all the groups."
His voice was a deep growl.
"Prioritize devouring the women and children."
The kobold frantically applauded the brilliant plan.
"Genius! But why exactly that strategy?"
Dariston sighed wearily, as if explaining something obvious to a stupid child.
"It's to drastically lower the defenders' morale."
He tightened his grip on Cassian, who groaned in pain.
"Faced with so much gratuitous violence and civilian losses, fear will inevitably sink deep into their weak hearts."
He smiled even wider.
"It will make them psychologically and physically much weaker."
The kobold jumped with excitement.
"Pure genius!"
It began exaggeratedly praising Dariston's incomparable tactical genius.
"The whole world will never again have the extraordinary chance to know a strategist of such caliber!"
Dariston raised a hand to silence it.
"Calm down now and go transmit the orders."
He brought Cassian closer to his face.
His hands closed completely.
He opened his maw wide.
He snapped his fangs together hard.
CLAC.
His teeth clashed on empty air.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing between his jaws.
Abruptly shifting his gaze from the still-present kobold to look straight ahead, he noticed with astonishment that he was no longer holding anyone in his hands.
Nothing at all.
His palms were completely empty.
He turned to the kobold.
"WHERE DID THE ELF GO?!"
His voice shook the surrounding walls.
The kobold timidly pointed in a precise direction with one clawed finger.
Dariston roared at it with uncontrollable rage.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING WHEN THE ELF WAS ESCAPING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES?!"
The kobold answered with disarming honesty.
"I sincerely hoped she would manage to escape so I could track her down alone afterward and eat her quietly without sharing because she's really pretty and appetizing."
With one brutal claw swipe, Dariston sliced the kobold into several bloody pieces that collapsed onto the ground.
---
Cassian ran at full speed through the chaotic streets of Veritas, instinctively heading toward the most crowded and populated areas where she hoped to find refuge in the crowd.
I don't understand.
Just a few minutes ago, the city was peaceful.
Now it's complete chaos.
What exactly happened?
She briefly wondered in horror if all this had happened because of her.
No.
It can't be my fault.
It's impossible.
I didn't do anything that could cause an invasion.
She reassured herself as best she could.
After a long exhausting run through streets crowded with people fleeing in every direction screaming, she finally arrived in front of the imposing guild building.
Finally.
Safety.
She walked through the air, then went straight into the apartment through a window she had left open.
She immediately headed to the comfortable couch in the living room.
She lay down on it with relief.
She exhaled deeply.
I'm safe here.
At the guild.
This is clearly the most secure building in the entire city.
No one can reach me here.
She thought with satisfaction.
I just have to wait comfortably for everything to end.
Let the competent adventurers handle the problem.
She closed her eyes trying to relax.
But she could still clearly hear all the horrible commotion continuing outside in the streets.
The screams.
The howls.
The sound of metal clashing.
It's starting to become unbearable.
I can't rest with all this noise.
Cassian headed toward the open window to close it and block the sounds.
The werewolf appeared literally out of nowhere.
It created a gigantic opening in the apartment by completely destroying an entire wall.
CRASH.
Stone and wood debris flew everywhere.
Cassian was violently thrown backward by the shockwave.
She bounced painfully on her buttocks.
Rolled several times.
How did he find me?!
Straight to the guild?!
That's impossible!
Dariston slowly advanced through the hole he had just created.
"Your scent is the most unique in this entire city."
He sniffed loudly.
"It wasn't even difficult to track you."
He suddenly charged.
Cassian did her best to dodge his deadly claws.
The werewolf methodically overturned everything in the apartment while trying to grab her.
The couch was shredded.
The table exploded into pieces.
The chairs flew against the walls.
The large massive wardrobe tipped dangerously.
Then fell heavily onto its side.
CRASH.
The Yes, Master ? maid outfit that had been hidden on top of the wardrobe fell straight to the floor right in front of Cassian.
Cassian's face lit up.
She desperately threw herself toward the outfit.
She grabbed it firmly.
She held it in front of her like a ridiculous shield.
At least maybe I can get rid of him with this.
A massive claw strike from Dariston slammed down violently on Cassian with enough force to cut her into several bloody pieces.
Cassian closed her eyes waiting for the fatal impact.
CLANG.
A metallic sound rang out strangely.
Cassian cautiously opened her eyes.
The outfit was perfectly intact.
Not a single scratch.
Not a single hole.
Not even a thread out of place.
And she herself was also completely unharmed, without any injury.
The werewolf and the elf exclaimed simultaneously in surprise.
"HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!"
Cassian frantically turned the outfit in every imaginable angle desperately searching for the slightest damage.
Nothing.
Perfectly intact.
What the hell is this thing?!
Dariston stared at the outfit in disbelief.
"It should have been torn without the slightest problem."
He shook his massive head.
"You should have been dead and cut into pieces too."
Looking closely at Cassian, he saw that she seemed just as surprised and confused as he was.
Cassian pointed the outfit at Dariston.
"Try again now."
Her voice trembled slightly.
"Hit even harder this time."
The werewolf hesitated briefly.
Then tried again with even more force and violence.
CLANG.
Exactly the same impossible result.
The outfit remained miraculously intact.
Cassian and Dariston shouted their respective frustration at the same time.
"WHY ISN'T THIS WORKING?!"
Cassian turned to Dariston accusingly.
"Explain yourself immediately!"
She pointed a finger at him.
"Aren't you supposed to be strong and dangerous?!"
She waved the outfit in front of him.
"Are your claws just there for decoration or what?!"
Dariston stepped back slightly with a voice trembling with incomprehension.
"I don't know what's happening."
He looked at his own claws in confusion.
"Yet my claws can normally cut through steel without the slightest difficulty."
He snapped them together.
"I've torn armor like paper."
Cassian deliberately placed the outfit on the ground in front of her.
She firmly grabbed one of Dariston's massive clawed fingers.
She guided it directly toward the outfit.
She tried with all her strength to make even the tiniest mark on the fabric.
Nothing happened.
The fabric remained perfectly smooth and intact.
Cassian released Dariston's finger with disgust.
She looked him up and down with a deeply disappointed expression.
